When the Braves reported for spring training, they would be with a young pitcher named Richard Crutcher Jr. Crutcher, who came to the Braves from St. Joseph in the Western League and was known as the "Strikeout King". He struck out 211 batters in 304 innings but also walked 145, by far the most in the league. He was slated for regular use when the season began.

On April 22nd manager George Stallings allowed Crutcher to start against the Phillies and he was a success both on the mound and at the plate. The rookie had a pair of hits and pitched a complete game, striking out four while walking only one batter. However, he was consistently in trouble before the Braves broke through in the ninth to get the tiebreaking run scored by Crutcher himself.

On July 6th, Crutcher turned in his best effort, pitching his only major-league shutout, against the Robins. He allowed six hits and one walk in the 1-0 decision.

For the rest of the season, he was used in relief with a few spot starts because of doubleheaders or the need to rest other pitchers. Most of the relief outings occurred in low-leverage situations with the Braves trailing. If saves were recorded in those days, Crutcher would have had none. His final appearance of the year was a 15-2 romp over Brooklyn on the next-to-last day of the regular season.

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Dick Crutcher (pic)